Easter Musicals

In choosing an Easter musical I feel one of the important
considerations is to choose one which will allow you to use as many songs
as possible as pull-outs that your choir can sing effectively throughout
the year other than your Easter performance. When I, along with the
arranger, consider songs to include in an Easter musical, we are always
keeping this consideration in mind. I am delighted that many of the songs
in all three of the Lanny Wolfe Easter musicals are pull-outs and make
sense to sing during any given Sunday service in which the choir sings.

To give maximum flexibility to the song I've Just Got To Tell
You I have penned optional lyrics for both verses so that you may
choose which set of lyrics you like best for the Easter presentation and
for non-seasonal use.

One of my favorite songs which God has inspired me to write in the last
five years is It Should Have Been Me. Every time I hear the song,
it's like I'm hearing it for the first time and I'm affected dramatically
every time I hear it. In the musical, it is most ideal for a tenor to sing
the lead and represent Barabbas. However, optional lyrics have been
written so that someone else other than a Barabbas could singing the solo.
This person could be a Biblical character or a contemporary. Also, to make
the song most usable, I have written an optional melodic line so that a
female could sing the solo. After you use this song in an Easter setting
I'm sure that you will want to sing it more often than once a year. Even
if it weren't my song, I could hear this song and arrangement once a month
and it wouldn't be too often.

Both Love Found A Way and Praise The Lamb offer wonderful
pull-out possibilities. You may want to consider after you have done one
of the above three musicals in its entirety to piece together different
songs and narrations from all three to personalize an Easter musical that
would incorporate some of the songs that possibly your choir did the
previous Easter with some new ones for this year. This would take some of
the pressure off of learning an entire new musical

Whichever Easter musical you choose, the important consideration is
that the story is told, and that hearts are touched and lives are changed.
To do anything less is to merely put on a "performance" of nice music.
With so many hurting, lonely, and lost, just a nice performance comes
short of our responsibility to change the world.